Be with you in just one minute, I’m working the cork out of this Magnum bottle of Veuve Cliquot Champagne, 1961 vintage. The widow and I are going to tackle this together. Maybe one or two more, it all depends on the champagne and the Veuve’s behavior!
Champagne in July, quelle follie! Why the man must clearly be mad! Ouis, obviously too much sun perhaps but still why is Monsieur doing such a crazy thing? In France, he would be considered a wonderful lunatic, a true man of the world who appreciates the finer subtleties of the grape! Elsewhere, the paddy wagon would already be out in front and you would go directly to jail without stopping to collect your $200.00. I was going to wait to celebrate the blogs’ first year anniversary which would be on 1/28/11 but that was so far away and more than I could reasonably handle and who knows my kitchen, my wine cellar and my mind could all have self-destructed by then. Even worse, I could wake-up and find I really was not in Paris! Therefore I cling to the belief that one should live fully and with gusto dans le moment rather than patiently waiting for an “appropriate time.” That probably holds true for a lot of things! So let me lick the end of my pencil, pull out my little carnet and do some figuring, six months, 24 dishes completed, a host of stories and vignettes written some with absolutely no link whatsoever to French food other then having read them drove some of my readers to perhaps overindulge with a glass or two of Bordeaux, a Chinon or perhaps a chilled white Burgundy. You were introduced to some nostalgic musings about Paris which brought together a collection of personal memories as seen through the eyes of a young American boy in Paris juxtaposed against the grainy sober realism of maturity and mixed together with some interesting imagination. You joined me on a nice long weekend in Brittany then down to Vichy for a well deserved cure before I stepped into another world, a story which needs to continue I might add. Then on to the south of France with a melange of stories and some very good food.
Along the way, you were introduced to a handful of characters from Max my old friend who turns up in interesting places, Sylvie and Raymond, my very good friends with whom I have a love hate relationship, Sergei my brainy Russian comrade attorney and financial whiz kid, Inspector Lambert who is saddled with that one last case before he can enjoy his retirement and a few other characters as well. You’ve read some pieces that clearly depart from our baseline of Paris, France and French cooking, so those of you still with me, un grand merci! Not everyone wants to read about great chicken dishes only to be followed by a piece about a Latin hit man or for that matter the musings of an eight oared racing shell facing her last row. I hope I wasn’t thinking of myself but who knows. Writing is an introspective exercise with an occasional mind of its own and strange things bubble up and do find there way on paper. I should remember that I suppose. Lastly, we talked about wine and wine pairing, a subject I continue to feel is important to talk about and along the road, I have tasted some pretty darn good wines and hope you all have as well. And of course, the major player in all of this mind blogging trip and one who has been devotedly by my side throughout is Monsieur Louis, my great golden. How could I not place him as a major player in one of the most sensational dog biting legal cases of our mind? What a long strange trip it’s been!
So in the end there you have a wonderful experiment, let’s hope for another six months then we can truly celebrate. Merci a tous and will reflect with you again on the other side of the new year!!